gbvienna@pro-beagle.cts.com (George Brownstone) (10/20/90)
The news that ProDOS v.1.9 (and 2.0, too?) has arrived
re-awakens one of my recurrent questions, which I've never
seen addressed in the magazines or on the BBS's:
While I assume that the newer versions of ProDOS
represent advances of some sort, what are they, what are
their practical implications, and is it important or useful
for an ordinary computer user, like myself, to know? So
far, namely, I've either noticed no change, or developed
unexpected problems, but in no case have I ever encountered
a noticeable improvement. At the same time, I feel I ought
to apply the same principle here as with other software I
use, i.e., "newest versions are best" (with the possible
exception of some updates to X.0 versions); with other
things, though, I can almost always spot the improvement.
So, should I be updating ProDOS, or, on the "if it
ain't broke, don't fix it" law, should I stick with what I
have?
The same questions apply re BASIC.SYSTEM updates.
Can anyone clarify this?
Thanx,
- George -THROOP@GRIN1.BITNET ("Throop,Henry B") (10/26/90)
[question about P8 and Basic.system changes - are there any?] Look at ProDOS 8 technotes #23 and #24 for a history of ProDOS 8 and Basic.System changes. There actually are quite a few changes, although nothing real big by itself. The notes are available by anon ftp from apple.com in pub/dts/aii or on some of the other ftp sites. I don't have ftp access here or I'd mail them to you. -- Henry Throop THROOP@GRIN1.BITNET throoph@jacobs.cs.orst.edu
alfter@uns-helios.nevada.edu (SCOTT ALFTER) (10/26/90)
In article <9010251928.AA29754@apple.com> THROOP@GRIN1.BITNET ("Throop,Henry B") writes: >[question about P8 and Basic.system changes - are there any?] > >Look at ProDOS 8 technotes #23 and #24 for a history of ProDOS 8 and >Basic.System changes. There actually are quite a few changes, although >nothing real big by itself. > >The notes are available by anon ftp from apple.com in pub/dts/aii or on some >of the other ftp sites. I don't have ftp access here or I'd mail them to >you. Too bad Apple hasn't kept that site updated--the tech notes there are the same ones that were there in January. They sent updates to GEnie, though, which I plan to grab soon. Send me mail if you want me to send the current technotes. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Scott Alfter _/_ / v \ Apple II: Internet: alfter@uns-helios.nevada.edu ( ( the power to be your best! GEnie: S.ALFTER \_^_/
MQUINN%UTCVM@PUCC.PRINCETON.EDU (10/26/90)
On Sat, 20 Oct 90 06:28:34 PST George Brownstone said: > The news that ProDOS v.1.9 (and 2.0, too?) has arrived >re-awakens one of my recurrent questions, which I've never >seen addressed in the magazines or on the BBS's: > > While I assume that the newer versions of ProDOS >represent advances of some sort, what are they, what are >their practical implications, and is it important or useful >for an ordinary computer user, like myself, to know? So >far, namely, I've either noticed no change, or developed >unexpected problems, but in no case have I ever encountered >a noticeable improvement. At the same time, I feel I ought If you have a program version version number, say.... 1.0, then a newer release comes out, say.... 1.1, it's almost always the exact same program with only bug fixes (at least, this is the way I understand it). When the version number finally increases a whole decimal... 2.0, then some new feature(s) has/have usually been added, but usually brings new bugs with it. Then version 2.1 will come out that fixes some of those bugs, then version 2.2 or 2.23 or 2.4a or whatever until it's actually 'upgraded' again with new features (version 3.0). I've never seen any 'official' documentation to support this, so I may be way off, but it seems to be true. >Thanx, >- George - ____________________________________________________________________ | | | | This is your brain... | BITNET-- mquinn@utcvm | | This is your brain on drugs... | pro-line: | | This is your brain on whole wheat.| mquinn@pro-gsplus.cts.com | |____________________________________|_______________________________|
gwyn@smoke.brl.mil (Doug Gwyn) (10/26/90)
In article <0.chatter.infoapple@pro-beagle> gbvienna@pro-beagle.cts.com (George Brownstone) writes: > While I assume that the newer versions of ProDOS >represent advances of some sort, what are they, what are >their practical implications, and is it important or useful >for an ordinary computer user, like myself, to know? The changes are documented in a Apple Technical Note, and generally consist of bug fixes and support for new hardware features of later models of Apple II. These days, GS/OS and ProDOS-8 have to coordinate closely, so some changes are probably inspired by that need. Early versions of ProDOS would sometimes clobber track 0 (typically) of a floppy, so later versions that have that bug fixed are advised. > The same questions apply re BASIC.SYSTEM updates. Pretty much the same answers. The most recent patch to BASIC fixed a horrible bug that could cause unwanted truncation of files.
daveharv@pro-novapple.cts.com (Dave Harvey) (11/04/90)
In-Reply-To: message from gbvienna@pro-beagle.cts.com > The news that ProDOS v.1.9 (and 2.0, too?) has arrived >re-awakens one of my recurrent questions, which I've never >seen addressed in the magazines or on the BBS's: > So, should I be updating ProDOS, or, on the "if it >ain't broke, don't fix it" law, should I stick with what I >have? > The same questions apply re BASIC.SYSTEM updates. > Can anyone clarify this? >Thanx, >- George - Excerpts from the two technical notes pertaining to the latest update might help you make a decision. Apple II Technical Notes _____________________________________________________________________________ Developer Technical Support ProDOS 8 #23: ProDOS 8 Changes and Minutia Revised by: Matt Deatherage September 1990 Written by: Matt Deatherage July 1989 This Technical Note documents the change history of ProDOS 8 through V1.9, and it supersedes the information on this topic in the ProDOS 8 Technical Reference Manual and the ProDOS 8 Update. Changes since March 1990: Updated to include ProDOS 8 version 1.9 and its known bugs. _____________________________________________________________________________ Changes? You're kidding. No. One of the side effects of evolving technology is that eventually little things (like the disk operating system) have to change to support the new technologies. Every time Apple changes ProDOS 8, the manuals can't be reprinted. For one thing, it takes a long time to turn out a manual, by which time there's often a new version done which the new manual doesn't cover. For another thing, programmers and developers don't tend to purchase revised manuals (our informal research shows that more people have up-to-date Apple /// RPS documentation than have up-to-date Apple IIc documentation--and this was done before the Apple IIc Plus was released...). So this Note explains what has changed between ProDOS 8 V1.0 and the current release, V1.9, which began shipping with System Software 3.2. Table 1 shows what versions of ProDOS 8 existing documentation covers. [History of versions prior to present update omitted] ProDOS 8 1.9 o New selector and dispatcher code was added for machines with 80 columns. The old code is still present for machines without 80- column capability. o Fixed two bugs involved in booting into a ".SYSTEM" program larger than 38K. First, ProDOS 8 should be able to boot into a program as large as 39.75K, but was returning an error if the ".SYSTEM" program was larger than 38K. Second, when attempting to print the message "*** SYSTEM PROGRAM TOO LARGE ***", only one asterisk was printed. Both these bugs are fixed. o No longer requires a ".SYSTEM" file when booting. If ProDOS 8 does not find a ".SYSTEM" file and the enhanced selector and dispatcher code is installed, ProDOS 8 executes a QUIT call. o KVERSION is still $08. Known Bugs in ProDOS 8 1.9 o ProDOS 8 doesn't handle seedling sparse files correctly. If you have a seedling file (only one block, less than 512 bytes of data) and use SET_EOF to grow the EOF without writing any data, the file becomes a sparse seedling file. The EOF indicates the file is a sapling or tree file, but in fact only one disk block is used. The storage type correctly indicates a seedling file. If you have such a file, and try to shrink it by setting the EOF to a value that is not an even multiple of a block boundary, ProDOS 8 gets confused and trashes some of the second half of the real data block. o If you perform a SET_PREFIX to a slash (/) followed by a SET_PREFIX to a volume name not preceded by a slash, the prefix gets set to the first letter of the volume name. Further Reference _____________________________________________________________________________ o ProDOS 8 Technical Reference Manual o ProDOS 8 Update o AppleShare Programmer's Guide to the Apple II o ProDOS 8 Technical Note #21, Identifying ProDOS Devices Apple II Technical Notes _____________________________________________________________________________ Developer Technical Support ProDOS 8 #24: BASIC.SYSTEM Revisions Revised by: Matt Deatherage September 1990 Written by: Matt Deatherage July 1989 This Technical Note documents the change history of BASIC.SYSTEM through V1.4.1, which ships with Apple IIgs System Software 5.0.3 and Apple II System Software 3.2. V1.0, the initial release, is not documented in this Note, and V1.1 is described in BASIC Programming with ProDOS. Changes since November 1989: Revised to include BASIC.SYSTEM 1.4.1. _____________________________________________________________________________ [History of previous versions prior to current update omitted] V1.4.1 o Fixed a bug in the mark handling routines. When using the "B" parameter to indicate a byte to use as a file mark, the third and most significant byte would never be reset before the next use of B. For example, if you used a B value of $010000 and then used a B value of $2345, BASIC.SYSTEM 1.4 would use $012345 for the second B parameter value. Further Reference _____________________________________________________________________________ o BASIC Programming with ProDOS o ProDOS 8 Technical Reference Manual proline: pro-novapple!daveharv | uucp: crash!pnet01!pro-novapple!daveharv | Pro-novapple BBS arpa: crash!pnet01!pro-novapple!daveharv@nosc.mil | 300/1200/2400/9600 Baud Internet: daveharv@pro-novapple.cts.com | 703-671-0416 | Northern Virginia Apple Users Group | P.O. Box 8211, Falls Church, VA 22041 |